The Kremlin warned on Friday that it will be compelled to take punitive “militarytechnical” actions if Finland’s politicians choose to join NATO. Russia’s foreign ministry said that in order to confront developing threats to its national security, Moscow “would be compelled to adopt punitive acts of military-technical and other dimensions.”
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin declared on Thursday that the Nordic nation should seek for NATO membership as soon as possible. NATO is a military defense agreement formed in part to resist the Soviet Union.
According to media sources, Sweden will make a similar statement in the coming days. Such an enlargement of the alliance would enclose Russia in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic, dealing a stinging setback to Russian President Vladimir Putin. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has stated that Finland and Sweden would be welcomed with open arms.
Meanwhile, as part of its drive to conquer the crucial industrial Donbas region, Russian soldiers pummeled regions in Ukraine’s east, including the final pocket of resistance in Mariupol, while Ukraine reclaimed some towns and villages in the country’s northeast. On Friday, Ukrainian soldiers damaged elements of a Russian armoured column as it attempted to cross a river in the Donbas area.